Issue 95: 1971 Archives - Bright Wall/Dark Room

Even as the fictional world of Lucas’ painfully personal debut acts as an ode to a man who dares to defy corporate strictures, THX 1138’s very existence is also a dire warning to his future self about the futility of defying such an all-consuming conglomerate.

Episode #2: Carnal Knowledge (1971)

Bright Wall/Dark Room·

Issue 95: 1971 Podcast

Join co-hosts Veronica Fitzpatrick & Chad Perman, and returning special guest Zosha Millman, as they talk their way through Mike Nichols' darkly complex and cinematic battle of the sexes.

Billy Jack: Between Two Worlds

Gabe Bullard·

Issue 95: 1971

For all its strangeness and inexplicability, Billy Jack is very real, and its confusion and missteps make it more than a snapshot of its era—it’s a self-portrait of a country during a strange time.

It’s Kind of an Itchy Age

Sara Batkie·

Issue 95: 1971

Fifty years since its release and 20 years since I first saw it, The Last Picture Show remains one of the best portraits of the ways we often fail to be worthy of one another, and one of the most generous towards the myriad disappointments of growing up and growing old, especially for women.

Jane Fonda in Klute (1971) | art by Tony Stella

The Best Actress in the World

Carrie Courogen·

Issue 95: 1971

If much of Fonda’s life both before and after Klute was marked by losses of her own identity as she attempted to mold herself into whatever the dominant man in her life wanted, Klute captures a rare and specific transitional moment.

Watkins’ World

Jason Christian·

Issue 95: 1971

At a time when hippie culture papered over structural problems with platitudes about “peace and love,” Punishment Park presents an unflinching condemnation of systemic racism and oppression.

The Tale of the Bad Object

Ethan Warren·

Issue 95: 1971

Tales of Beatrix Potter is a loose collection of concepts and elements that barely coheres, but manages to engage—and even delight—in spite of what should be overwhelming flaws.

Diamonds Are Forever | art by Tony Stella

The Surrealist Bond

Kent M. Wilhelm·

Issue 95: 1971

In the six-decade and soon-to-be-25 film oeuvre of the series, Diamonds Are Forever stands out as the most peculiar entry in the franchise thanks to its unintentional embrace of the surreal and the challenges it poses to its own pedigree and dogma.

Masterpieces of Misogyny

Julia Selinger·

Issue 95: 1971

In both Play Misty for Me and The Beguiled, Eastwood finds himself at the mercy of hysterical, horned-up women scorned. Not only does he play against type as victim to some tenacious broads, but the taciturn western hero—historically smoldering yet essentially sexless—presents in both films as a total horndog.

I Gave You The Road, Why Don’t You Take It?

Elizabeth Cantwell·

Issue 95: 1971

If many of Steven Spielberg’s films are marathon novels, Duel is a sonnet—it has room to play because of its formal constraints.

Whence We Unmoor No More

Frank Falisi·

Issue 95: 1971

The principal Homeric venture of Blue Water, White Death is that there is still worth in seeing the unseen things in the world. There is still worth in testifying to the idiot spirit of human inquiry.

French History as Fever Dream

Ross Peterson·

Issue 95: 1971

The Devils is not your edgy-for-the-sake-of-edgy middle finger to the Church many at the time took it to be. It’s, in fact, a very religious film made by a Catholic artist trying to make sense of his own faith.